Quarterback Eli Manning #10 (2nd R) of the New York Giants and Super Bowl XLVI MVP holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy as Justin Tuck #91 (R) of the New York Giants looks on during the Giants' Victory Parade on February 7, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — With the Vince Lombardi Trophy held high, Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning passed by thousands of cheering Giants fans eager to get a glimpse of a piece of sports history.

Players boarded their floats at Battery Place and Washington Street. They then headed up the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway, east on Worth Street and then south to Lafayette before ending on Duane Street.

Fans dressed in head-to-toe Giants gear started lining the streets as early as 6 a.m. for Tuesday’s parade in lower Manhattan, which kicked off at 11 a.m.

One group of fans at the corner of Battery Place and Broadway woke up early to snag the perfect spot along the Giants championship parade route.

“We got up at 3 a.m.,” said Jimmy Caruso from Staten Island. “Got dressed and hopped on a ferry.”

“Just them winning is really cool, but to actually get to see this up close, it’s very exciting,” Giants fan Andrew Messite added.

Alexandra Rudnicki, a 92-year-old, die-hard New York sports fan, refused to miss the celebration. She had her daughter leave her South Jersey home in the middle of the night so she could get picked up and secure some prime spots along the parade route.

“I wanted to see the greatest fellas in the world. They deserve everything they got here today,” Rudnicki told CBS 2’s Jessica Schneider.

And is wasn’t just about the fans. The players soaked up every minute of their victory march, many of them filming the parade from their floats as they drove by.

The Sanitation Department said crews picked up 34.2 tons of paper after the Giants’ 2008 parade. Street sweepers were out in full force as soon as fans left. The department brought in more than 300 workers, 30 mechanical sweepers, 14 collection trucks and 129 leaf blowers to clear the streets.

The floats in Tuesday’s parade were made by Bond Parade Floats in Clifton, N.J., the same company that built the floats for the team four years ago.

The city estimated that the ticker-tape parade and celebration brought between $20 million and $38 million to city businesses and that the average parade-goer spent $23.